Community Care Begins with COMMUNITY CARING
E ach of our unique lives necessarily take a singular path. Sometimes we painstakingly plan and then follow our path with focused determination, and sometimes our path’s course surprises even ourselves as we push forward towards our fulfilling light. Occasionally all of our careful planning and determination dead ends in disappointment, and even more occasionally the surprising turns of our almost unforeseen paths lead to grateful joy and deep personal satisfaction. For Mr. Kameeka Boyd, the latter life course of fortuitous fate continues to surge towards the sunlight of a brighter future. The brighter future—for his family and his community—continues to take shape in the form of Pleasant Behavioral Health Systems and its housing arm, Pleasant Housing Inc. Mr. Boyd’s long journey began in his native and very working class Baltimore where poor path choices were plentiful, and more fulfilling choices seemed few
Having now removed over 2,000 of his most beleaguered US citizens from sheltering in the streets of Baltimore and provided a stable and structured house and home—for many their first—Mr. Boyd shared his newest service experience.
and far between. But blessed with a generational mindset of determination to serve—both his father and stepfather were military men—in 2002 Mr. Boyd stepped up to the biggest of national challenges when he enlisted in the US Army, which lead directly to his service in Iraq following the infamous 911 attacks which sparked the inferno of the US War on Terror. Struck by the destitute housing conditions of beleaguered Iraqi citizens during his service there, Mr. Boyd completed his own Iraq mission in 2005 (as SPC/E-4) and the returning Specialist Boyd was then—and once again—struck by the near equally desperate need for affordable housing in his own US home. It was at this juncture that Mr. Boyd’s firm belief in housing as a human right crystallized into a life goal and professional vision. After a brief stint in diplomatic security in Washington DC., new private citizen Boyd then returned to his native Baltimore in 2009 and established Pleasant Housing Inc. and PBHS with his wife and partner, Tia.
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